The Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir El-Bahari

From Regent to Pharaoh

Hatshepsut came to power as regent for Thutmose III, who inherited the throne at about age two. By Year 7 of his reign, around 1472 BC, she had taken the full pharaoh's role for herself. The temple at Deir el-Bahari was built between her seventh and twentieth regnal years, and its plan was revised repeatedly during construction.

The finished temple is 273.5 metres long. It was a working temple with five cult sites, for Amun, Hathor, Anubis, the sun and the royal mortuary cult, not simply a monument to one woman. About twenty years after her death, Thutmose III ordered her memory erased from the walls, a story told under the defacement below.

Senenmut, the Steward Behind the Design

The architect of the temple is not certain. Wikipedia notes that the design may have been the work of Senenmut or of the high priest Hapuseneb, but Senenmut himself claimed on his own monuments to be chief architect at Deir el-Bahri. He held the titles Steward of the God's Wife and Steward of the King's Daughter Neferure, and he built two unfinished tombs, TT71 and TT353.

Beside Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari sits the older temple of Mentuhotep, built about 600 years before it.

The Lower Terrace

The lower terrace is 120 metres deep and 75 metres wide, with 22 columns in each portico. The lower terrace once held two persea trees and two T-shaped basins for papyrus and flowers. A one kilometre causeway, 37 metres wide, once linked a valley temple to the temple gate, with a barque station at its midpoint.

The reliefs here include a scene on the south portico showing two obelisks being shipped from Elephantine to Karnak.

The Middle Terrace and the Punt Reliefs

The middle terrace is 75 metres deep and 90 metres wide, and it holds the temple's most famous art. The southwest portico carries the reliefs of the expedition to the Land of Punt, sent in Year 9 with a fleet of five ships and led officially by Chancellor Nehsi. The carved scenes name the Puntite rulers as King Parahu and Queen Ati and record the cargo the fleet hauled home: gold, ivory, ebony, incense, aromatic resins, live animals, cosmetics, fragrant woods and myrrh trees.

Facing it on the northwest portico is the scene of Hatshepsut's divine birth, the oldest known wall scene of its type. Give this terrace the most time of the three.

The Upper Terrace and the Osiride Statues

The upper terrace has 26 columns, and each one is fronted by a 5.2 metre Osiride statue of Hatshepsut. Look at the crowns. The southern statues wear the Upper Egyptian crown and the northern ones the Lower Egyptian crown.

Visitors have had access to the festival courtyard and upper terrace since 2000, the solar cult court since 2015 and the sanctuary of Amun since 2017. Polish teams restored nine monumental statues from the upper portico facade.

The Hathor and Anubis Chapels

Two chapels sit at the ends of the middle terrace. The Hathor shrine at the south end is the larger of the two, with a portico of four Hathor-headed columns and two halls of 12 and 16 columns. Scratched-out feminine pronouns are common in this shrine.

The Anubis shrine at the north end is smaller, with a hall of 12 columns set in three rows of four. Its reliefs include a scene of Anubis escorting Hatshepsut. The temple had five cult sites, for Amun, Hathor, Anubis, the sun and the royal mortuary cult.

Ticket, Hours and Practical Details

The ticket figures below come from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities pages. Note the ticket conflict: the Ministry's own temple page and its Deir el-Bahari site page print different foreign adult prices, so budget for the higher one. Official prices are quoted in Egyptian pounds and never added to tour prices.

Heat, Shade and the Temple's Damaged Story

The temple has three terraced levels with some trees, and the Tourist Checklist advises early morning or late afternoon in summer, with October to April the temperate season. Carry water and a hat.

The walls also carry damage with a story. In his forty-second regnal year, about twenty years after Hatshepsut's death, Thutmose III ordered her reign erased. The methods varied from scratching out feminine pronouns, common in the Hathor shrine and on the upper terrace, to chiselling away her image or replacing it with an offering table. The campaign was short and was abandoned when Amenhotep II took the throne. Akhenaten's agents later attacked images of Amun at the temple, and an earthquake in the ninth century BC caused further damage. On 17 November 1997 gunmen killed 62 people, 58 of them foreign tourists, at the temple.

The restoration has been a Polish-Egyptian project. The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology has restored the temple since 1961, with the mission founded by Kazimierz Michalowski and reconstruction directed by Zygmunt Wysocki from 1967 to 1988. Wikipedia dates the whole-temple work from 1967. The teams restored nine monumental statues from the upper portico facade and the first sandstone sphinx on the lower courtyard, and visitors have had access to the festival courtyard and upper terrace since 2000, the solar cult court since 2015 and the sanctuary of Amun since 2017.

If you are pairing this temple with the royal tombs across the hill, the Valley of the Kings tickets guide explains which tombs the standard ticket covers and what costs extra, and Tutankhamun's tomb has its own separate ticket.

Half-Day and Full-Day Options Compared

The figures come from each tour's own listing. The comparison table on the homepage puts every tour side by side, including the Luxor day trips from Hurghada that also stop at the temple. The table below covers the listings most focused on this temple.

What Each Tour Actually Includes

The $23 half day from Luxor covers the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and the Colossi of Memnon in 5 hours with lunch at a local restaurant, but entrance fees are an option you add at booking and cash is advised for tips or extra tomb entries. The $40 private half day runs 4 to 5 hours over the same three sites, yet excludes all fees and taxes, and a guide in a language other than English adds 5 dollars per person. The $89.24 private day is the one where admission to Hatshepsut Temple, both valleys, Deir el-Medina and Medinet Habu is included, over 8 hours.

The $160 package bundles a balloon flight with the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple and Karnak, with entry fees included, but the temple stop is only 15 minutes and lunch is an optional 30-minute break at an extra fee. Pair the temple with the tombs using the Valley of the Kings map, and see Valley of the Queens and Medinet Habu for the other West Bank stops. For the temple details of Hatshepsut's own era, the Karnak Temple guide covers where her shipped obelisks ended up.